ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
For the first time in 30 years, a treasure of Japan has been touring the United States. It's not jewels or a painting. It's a sophisticated kind of puppet theater where the puppets are almost the size of people. NPR's Jennifer Vanasco was there for the unboxing.
JENNIFER VANASCO, BYLINE: Wrapped in layers of tissue paper, it's a handcarved wooden head with a stick neck.
It looks like a very fierce puppet.
There are strings connecting to six small levers. The head nods up and down. The jaw drops and snaps shut. The eyes cross. The eyebrows raise and then lower.
It looks so angry.
The artisan holding it shakes it a bit, and the puppet looks like it's trembling with rage. Later, he'll connect the head to a hollow frame with wooden arms and legs that's already dressed in a sumptuous costume. This is bunraku, a type of puppetry born in 1600s Osaka. Traditionally, there are three puppeteers per puppet. They wear hoods that obscure their faces. Each aspect of the performance is handmade and incredibly detailed - the sets, the embroidery, and the puppet kimonos, the metal blades of the weapons. The puppets are usually the size of a large child, although when this puppet head is attached to its body, it turns out we're almost neck and neck.
These puppets are really gigantic. The - this male puppet is almost as tall as me.
For context, I'm 5'2. These puppets are part of an exhibition on bunraku at Japan Society, which is a cultural institution in New York. Michele Bambling is the director of the art gallery. She says it's rare to see these puppets on display.
MICHELE BAMBLING: These are irreplaceable and beautiful works of art that are used onstage. Our art handlers were not allowed to touch these. We had to fly artisans over from Japan to actually install these puppets.
VANASCO: The National Bunraku Theater in Osaka has also been touring the country. The company includes puppeteers but other performers, too - shamisen players, who strum a traditional three-stringed instrument, and the narrators, who also provide all the voices of the characters.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED NARRATORS: (As characters, chanting in non-English language).
VANASCO: Bunraku has been called Japan's Shakespeare. Many of the stories are tragic.
YOKO SHIOYA: Japanese puppet theater is basically for adults.
VANASCO: Yoko Shioya is the artistic director of Japan Society. She says, here, the company is performing a scene from a famous play that's similar to "Romeo And Juliet" but a bit more violent.
SHIOYA: So that's not really for kids.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED NARRATORS: (As characters, chanting in non-English language).
VANASCO: Bunraku is not a frozen art form. It's influenced puppeteers all over the world, and plenty are using it to create contemporary works in the U.S. and elsewhere. But back in the gallery, the artisans are doing things the traditional way. They're ironing costumes, carefully straightening puppets on stands. Shioya asks them how long it takes to learn their craft, and then she interprets.
SHIOYA: It is quite often said that to perform (ph) moving the legs takes 10 years to master, and left arms takes 15 years.
VANASCO: And what about the most difficult part of operating these puppets, the right arm plus the head, with its waggly eyebrows and snapping jaw?
SHIOYA: Takes lifelong.
VANASCO: The bunraku exhibit will be at Japan Society until January, and bunraku puppetry will be showcased in Japan when Osaka hosts the World Expo next year. Jennifer Vanasco, NPR News, New York.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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